Self-service car cleaning businesses have increased in popularity in recent years due to several factors. One such factor is the desire of vehicle owners to wash, polish and otherwise clean their cars, trucks, vans, etc. more easily, quickly and efficiently than is possible by traditional hand-cleaning methods. Also, many self-serve car wash locations provide cleaning functions in addition to the wash, rinse and wax cycles commonly found at most locations. These additional functions include tire and engine cleaning, underbody spray, etc., which procedures are too difficult or inconvenient for many vehicle owners to perform at their homes. Most importantly, the self-serve car wash provides a basic car washing service to those individuals who do not have the means available to them at their dwellings to adequately clean their cars, such as an outdoor spigot and hose or a sheltered place such as a garage for cleaning the vehicle during inclement weather. Apartment dwellers are the most common example of individuals with such deficiencies.
The typical self-service car wash includes a plurality of car wash bays, each having its own car washing equipment therein. Such equipment usually consists of a wand or other similar device capable of performing some or all of the above-mentioned car cleaning procedures. The wand is usually actuated by a customer by depositing a predetermined amount of coins into a meter located in the wash bay and then manually selectively moving a dial on the meter to various car cleaning functions listed on the face thereof.
Most self-serve car washes are unattended and are located on or adjacent to busy thoroughfares in order to attract the optimum number of customers. During peak traffic periods, large amounts of money are collected in the coin meters. Unfortunately, however, such exposure also attracts thieves intent on stealing the money contained in the coin meters. A thief can quickly break into the meters and make off with the proceeds contained therein. The owner or operator of the car wash can reduce his losses from such thievery by frequently retrieving the money from the meters, but repeated trips to the car wash are time-consuming and often impractical. Thus, the only alternative solution to this problem is to devise a way to automatically remove the coins from the meters and transport them to a secured area for safekeeping until the coins can be retrieved. One way to achieve such automatic removal is by pneumatically conveying the coins from the meters to a secured area by use of either a pump or blower motor.
Several known prior art pneumatic conveying apparatus are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,003,257; 3,419,209; and 3,509,911. However, the apparatus shown in these patents must either be actuated by an operator, or if user actuated, the pneumatic conveying means is always running which is costly and inefficient.
The closest known prior art to my vacuum coin collection apparatus of the present invention is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,131,318. However, there are significant differences between the vacuum coin collection apparatus shown in this U.S. Pat. No. 4,131,318 and my coin collection apparatus. First, the apparatus shown in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,131,318 utilizes complicated timing mechanisms to periodically actuate a vacuum motor and solenoids whereby coins are periodically conveyed from each coil meter located in separate car wash bays and into a single remote collection chamber. The timing mechanisms actuate the vacuum motor whether or not coins are present in the coin meter. The apparatus of the present invention uses a simple switch and electrical circuit to actuate the pump motor only when coins have been deposited in the meter for conveying the coins to a remote secure collection box. Furthermore, the apparatus of the type shown in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,131,318 does not remove the coins from the meters immediately upon their deposit. Thus, the possibility exists that the coins still could be pilfered from the meters if a thief strikes between coin removal cycles for a particular meter.
Accordingly, the need exists for an improved, user-actuated vacuum coin collection apparatus, particularly for use in connection with self-service car washing equipment. The need also exists for an improved coin collection apparatus in which coins are removed from the meters immediately upon their deposit therein; in which the motor utilized to convey the coins to a secure area operates only when coins are present in the meters; and in which the apparatus is economical to manufacture, is easily installed in new or existing self-service car wash bays, and is simple and reliable in its construction and operation to avoid excessive "downtime" and increased maintenance and repair costs.